NYT Spelling Bee

[cathwen]

I almost gave up on LB, but found a solution.  I'll be curious to see what the official solution is.  As ciao_yall said, one of the words doesn't seem like a real word. 

I made genius in SB and got the pangram, but probably will not try for more.  It's not one of those days when words just pop out at me.

[ciao_yall]

I almost gave up on LB, but found a solution.  I'll be curious to see what the official solution is.  As ciao_yall said, one of the words doesn't seem like a real word.

I made genius in SB and got the pangram, but probably will not try for more.  It's not one of those days when words just pop out at me.

Yes, they were saying the same thing on the comments thread about SB.

You have a gift for LB!

[ab_grp]

Good job on the LB 2fers! You're right, taxiway is not a word I would have thought of.  Not close to fragment, either.  Hopefully today's will be better.

Didn't do much in the way of puzzling yet, but I did get a pangram at least.  Time to get the crossword and trivia league out of the way momentarily, thankfully with coffee!!

Still no luck on the hard sudoku from yesterday.  I asked it for a hint, and it highlighted a cell that it thinks is the next most logical to work on.  I have no idea yet why it thinks yet, but I will have another go at it today after I try today's puzzles.  I have only entered three numbers so far! And I think I have carefully gone through every row, column, and container.  I am obviously missing something.  Luckily in previous puzzles I eventually got it, even if it took days.

[Langue_doc]

The LB word is rather specialized, as it is a term that would be familiar to only certain airport employees such as pilots and maintenance people who have been cleared to taxi a plane on the runway.
The FAA notes the safety issues associated with using runways as taxiways by pilots:

"A common Air Traffic Control (ATC) practice lately is to utilize an active or inactive runway as a taxiway due to airport geometry, construction, congestion, or taxiway restrictions which can increase risk as signage is spread further apart and sometimes difficult to read from the cockpit. An additional hazard is the intersections of runway-to-runway crossing points are frequently missing many of the visual cues present on taxiways such as signs, markings, and lighting. Find out about this Safety Alert and the recommendations to mitigate at your facility."

SB--I'm at Alpha Bee today. Crosswords, sudokus, and vertex have been successfully tackled. I'm not sure if I want to deal with LB.

[ciao_yall]

Yesterday, got FRAGMENT and noticed TAXI then thought what am I going to do with the W and Y... When I did see the solution I remembered oh yeah, on planes, they are always announcing that "we will be waiting in line on the taxiway before getting on the runway..."

Today's LB - an N would come in handy, and what is up with putting the X with a vowel and the H with an I? Grr...

[cathwen]

Yes, I thought taxiway was just a tad specialized.  I was sure it would be rejected, and was rather surprised when it wasn't.  Thanks for the information on taxiways, Langue_doc!

Did anyone get a solution different from the official one? 

For today's LB, I found a wonderful word that uses all letters...B4SS!   I did get a 2-fer, though. 

I made genius on SB and a little beyond, but QB is probably not in my future.  Tomorrow I'll probably be banging my head when I see the words that I missed.

I screwed up royally on the hard sudoku (so much for razor-sharp reasoning) and had to backtrack, but finally solved it.  The crossword awaits,  but not until after I've done some actual work.

[ciao_yall]

Yes, I thought taxiway was just a tad specialized.  I was sure it would be rejected, and was rather surprised when it wasn't.  Thanks for the information on taxiways, Langue_doc!

Did anyone get a solution different from the official one? 

For today's LB, I found a wonderful word that uses all letters...B4SS!   I did get a 2-fer, though. 

Given that the only solution found by the commenters on the Crosswords board was the official one, I think that was the only one.

Already a 2fer?  You have a knack!

ETA: 2fer B4SS. Gah!

[ab_grp]

Already a 2fer?  You have a knack!

Agreed! Good job, cathwen! No luck for me so far.  As for the sudoku today, I managed to screw up the easy one! I think I need to wake up a little more.

Congrats on the Alpha Bee, Langue_doc! I just got there myself.  I don't think husband had gotten to genius yet, so not sure if we will compare anytime soon, and he has a meeting coming up that will keep him busy.  I still have about 14 points to QB, but that may not happen today.

Good luck to us on the LB, ciao_yall! (and Langue_doc, if that ends up on the agenda)

[Langue_doc]

Looks like you're all making progress. No luck so far on LB. I too want an 'n'! All the promising letters are on the same side.

ETA: I don't usually get to look at the comments on the crosswords board as there are a mere handful when I complete the puzzle at night. Last night though, I wanted to object to the clue for 1A, but it turned out that the clue was indeed correct, according to several comments there when I checked this morning. I did see, for the first time, the SB hints that ciao_yall often refers to.

[ab_grp]

Husband got to genius, and we decided to compare lists since I was at Alpha Bee and he didn't feel like continuing.  He added a word to my list, and we still had some room to QB.  Glad we finally looked at the answers, because I do not think we would have gotten the final few points.  Oh well, on to other things.

Still no LB luck for me, either.  Lots of OH... no, darnit moments. 

I don't tend to read the crossword comments anymore unless the puzzle has elements that I think will cause controversy, because now that I play the bee and letterboxed I want to avoid seeing anything I don't want to see.

Didn't get to the medium or hard sudokus, yet.

[ab_grp]

In case anyone here does not follow Sam Ezersky (bee creator), he tweeted that we should leave more time for Friday's bee (https://twitter.com/thegridkid/status/1351624915749924864):

Leave yourselves TIME for this Friday's Bee. To those of you who must reach a certain tier before starting the day: adjust that alarm accordingly.

Wouldn't run a challenge if I didn't think it came with a fun factor ... but let's find out.

I'll add that there is NO "s" ... nor is the word count any higher than a normal "hard" day.

[Langue_doc]

Thanks, ab_grp. I'm too old school to follow tweets on Twitter.

[ciao_yall]

Genius on SB. 2fer on LB. Also found a word (I think same as cathwen's) that uses up all the letters in one go, B4SS.

[ab_grp]

Yay, ciao_yall! I just got a 2fer as well.  And congrats on genius!

Langue_doc, I hope the warning helps us all if we can remember come Friday.  I'm interested to see what kind of challenge he's cooked up.

[Parasaurolophus]

For today's LB, I found a wonderful word that uses all letters...B4SS! 

Whoa, what?! Wow!

I found one that uses 11 letters, but it rejected it.

In case anyone here does not follow Sam Ezersky (bee creator), he tweeted that we should leave more time for Friday's bee (https://twitter.com/thegridkid/status/1351624915749924864):

Leave yourselves TIME for this Friday's Bee. To those of you who must reach a certain tier before starting the day: adjust that alarm accordingly.

Wouldn't run a challenge if I didn't think it came with a fun factor ... but let's find out.

I'll add that there is NO "s" ... nor is the word count any higher than a normal "hard" day.

Oh! That's exciting! I'll have to try harder Friday.